iPod game wins second prize in a beauty contest, collects $10 iPod Monopoly is just as fun as the capitalist board game, minus the joy of throwing houses and hotels at your sibling after a three-hour stalemate. For better or worse, almost nothing has changed from the physical game, with the iPod version sporting the same rules and play. You can even customize more than a dozen “house” rules; we never realized that putting tax money on Free Parking wasn’t in the official game, but iPod Monopoly let us add that jackpot to that space.

Bust a gnarly front flip, brah. Sweet Above you are the spinning helicopter rotors and the blue sky. Below you, the pure white snow and your trusty snowboard. You drop out of the helicopter door, hit the slope, and pop off a trick. This is the starting point for MacSoft’s Drop Point: Alaska.Heli Fun

Our level 10 knight battles a level 11 troll to become Lord of the Swamp. Practically everyone has played a board or two of Bejeweled, the match-three puzzle classic that sucks casual gamers in on Macs, PCs, consoles, iPods, and mobile phones. Puzzle Quest starts with the same gameplay, but adds strategy and RPG elements to keep things interesting.

Dark Castle’s infamous henchmen return—and bring friends. Return to Dark Castle revisits two classic Mac games from 1986 and 1987. Back then, the black-and-white Dark Castle titles introduced sharp graphics and smart gameplay to a young side-view, platform genre. But other than color and more levels, little has been added to Return to Dark Castle. This lovingly crafted game could have come out 20 years ago—we were hoping for more updates and innovation.

With all the hoopla surrounding the Apple TV, many Mac owners are unaware that an easy device for streaming iTunes media may already be sitting in their entertainment system. All three of the latest game consoles—PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii—are capable of streaming media from your Mac to your television over your existing network.

Bank shots are even better when you shoot them on purpose! With Neon Tango, Freeverse conjures up the spirit of classic, vector-line arcade games. This unabashedly retro shooter features typical, blast-anything-that-moves gameplay that would normally cost you an afternoon pumping quarters into a cabinet. And even though Neon Tango never feels completely original, its high standards make for some fun shooting.

As the Portuguese battle the mighty French, those aren’t mere numbers rising from our avatars. They’re people! Thousands of people! The exciting, and sometimes upsetting, national narratives of world history form the setting and mechanics of Europa Universalis 3, the latest strategy title from publisher Virtual Programming. But don’t worry—the game and its expansion pack, Napoleon’s Ambitions, are more of an exercise in strategic domination than a history lesson.

A zoomed-in view lets you watch the orcs bleed. You’ll have to zoom out, though, to place the towers. Orcs coming. Must kill orcs. Towers kill orcs. Must buy towers. Orcs drop cash. Buy more towers. Kill more orcs. Orcs come faster. More to kill. Kill, kill, kill.Hordes of Orcs is enjoyably primal. If you enjoy games like Beach Head 2000 for their repetitive killing, you’ll find a lot to like about this game, which should also thrill anyone whose favorite buildings in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness were the guard and cannon towers.

Why can’t we just raid a tomb once in a while without having to leap for precarious ledges? Lara Croft trades Indiana Jones’s whip for a pair of big guns. The two characters end up in similar adventures, however, stealing priceless artifacts from around the world. But unlike the creakier Dr. Jones, Lara uses her athleticism to vault through traps, off walls, and over pits. This acrobatic style makes Tomb Raider Anniversary an exciting game, even though it occasionally frustrates.